


Last Stand

by cofax



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-16
Updated: 2010-03-16
Packaged: 2017-10-08 01:21:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/71241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cofax/pseuds/cofax





	Last Stand

  
  
  


* * *

**Last Stand**

  
"This is your fault, Mulder." Scully balanced the rifle on the window ledge and squeezed the trigger. *Bang*, and another one stumbled and fell.

That left only four hundred and ninety-nine shambling bodies surrounding the Iowa farmhouse.

"_My_ fault?" Mulder paused, there was a shot, and then he continued. "How is it _my_ fault you wouldn't believe the evidence of your own autopsy?"

The crowd separated, and a smaller group of about forty headed off to the barn about fifty yards for the house. Scully winced in sympathy for the animals inside. The FBI agents hadn't had time to check, in their frenzied dash for cover, but she suspected there were at the least chickens and goats in the barn.

The chain of circumstances leading to their situation, trapped in an isolated farmhouse and at risk of their lives, was tangled, but it involved an investigation of an alleged infestation of the Maple Run high school by endangered bats, an assault by a late-night pizza delivery man (Scully rubbed the bump on her head where the malodorous teen had tried to chew through to her cerebellum), and Mulder coming to her rescue with the ancient, and therefore, heavy, motel telephone. Scully wasn't sure what was going on, but she certainly knew who to blame.

"My autopsy was interrupted, as you well know," *bang*, "and I didn't have time to run any of the tests I wanted."

There was a crash from behind her, and Scully spun around to see Mulder swinging a kitchen chair against a greenish arm protruding through the broken window. "Interrupted by the dead rising, Scully!"

Scully grabbed the baseball bat and with one fierce swing, shattered the groping arm. There was a moan and the arm withdrew, leaving ... _bits_ on the broken windowpane. "No time to board it up," Scully said. "Let's use the couch."

The couch must have weighed seven tons, and was upholstered in a tough green vinyl that went out in the early sixties. But the heavy steel frame would be better protection from their attackers than a piece of plywood would, anyway. When they got it upended against the window, Scully returned to her post, rifle in hand.

"I'm not going to say the dead rose unless I _know_ they're actually dead, Mulder. Maybe you didn't kill the Mike Jenkins when you hit him with the phone. This could be some form of mass hysteria associated with a fungal infection, maybe distributed through the water supply. If the colonists in Salem had their rye poisoned with ergot--"

Mulder squeezed in next to her, edging her to the left so he could see out the window to shoot. "If they're the ones having hallucinations from tainted water, Scully, why are _we_ the ones watching them drop pieces of themselves in the farmyard?"

There was a bang and a body flew out the barn door, followed by three goats, dappled black and white.

"Because *you* insisted on investigating this case, Mulder." *bang* Another one dropped, but six more stepped over the body and kept coming, green faces gleaming with dulled enthusiasm, arms outstretched.

The lead goat, a hefty fellow with a nice set of horns, plowed into the crowd, sending several bodies flying. Scully suspected the goats were more likely to survive than she was. Whatever these -- she wasn't going to say "zombies", she wasn't -- afflicted individuals were after, the goats didn't have it.

*Bang*

"_You_ insisted on staying in Maple Run even after the bat thing turned out to be preparations for the school Halloween party, Mulder."

*Bang*

There was a crash from the back of the house, where they'd bolted the kitchen door. That wasn't going to hold much longer, and all the phones had proved useless.

"Oh, c'mon, Scully! Zombies! Isn't this just a little cool?" Mulder raised an eyebrow at her, and she resisted the urge to hit him on the head with the butt of her gun.

"If we die here, Mulder, I'm going to kill you."

*Bang*

END  
  
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